Consumer Products Blog
Analogue switch off U-turn is right for consumers
By Duncan Smith - Last updated: Friday, July 9, 2010This is the third and hopefully final in my series of posts (#1 and #2) about the threatened switch-off of analogue radio broadcast in the UK in 2015.
The more I have talked to people about it, the more certain I have become: analogue switch off doesn’t make sense for consumers and, my view has nothing to do whether DAB is “better” or not. DAB hasn’t made it into cars, so it is really only for in-home use, and when you are at home, why on earth wouldn’t you listen to digital radio stations via an internet connection?
Via the internet, 1.6 million people download the BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy podcast every month, listening to what they want, when they want it- you can’t do that with DAB.
Besides, FM and AM are simply fit for purpose for most consumers – it is no wonder three quarters of all UK listening is still on analogue radio, despite the unprecedented 15 year push for DAB, hardly an advert for rapid rollout of innovative consumer product development in Britain.
Fortunately, our new government seems to agree. UK Communications minister Ed Vaizey told the BBC that ”if people are still listening to, say, the BBC on FM by 2015, then that will continue”.
So let’s hope the issue is put to bed until 2015. I’ll still be waking up to my old FM radio then.
I was on the radio this morning talking about all this. Appropriately it is available as a podcast – at least for the next week. I’m from 18 minutes in, sandwiched in between I Got You Babe and You Sexy Thing.
